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DBS outstrips local rivals in banking to large corporates, report finds

Asia
Bank of America, Bank of China, Citigroup, DBS Group, Deutsche, East & Partners, Hang Seng Bank, Hsbc, JP Morgan, OCBC, Standard Chartered, United Overseas Bank
Customer Satisfaction, Market share, Press Release, Research, Transaction Banking

(22 June 2005 – Singapore) DBS is edging further ahead of its local rivals UOB and OCBC in providing transaction banking services to large corporates* in the region, banking research firm East & Partners has found.East & Partners’ latest six-monthly Asian Transaction Banking Report shows DBS
has increased its market share of primary transaction banking relationships over
the past six months while fellow Singaporean banks UOB and OCBC have recorded
notable market share losses since the previous report.

The research program, which examines the banking experiences of Asia’s Top 1000
corporates (excluding Japan), reveals DBS has grown its share of primary
transaction banking relationships to 9.2 percent, up from 9.0 percent six months
earlier.

UOB’s share of primary transaction relationships has dropped to 7.7 percent from
8.5 percent in the previous report; OCBC has shed even more primary
relationships with large corporates, dipping to 5.3 percent from 6.3 percent
just six months earlier.

Foreign banks HSBC, Standard Chartered and Citigroup continue to own the lion’s
share of relationships with major corporates across Asia, having slightly more
than 50 percent of the overall market. Standard Chartered remains the leading
transaction services provider across the region.

East & Partners’ report finds that in terms of overall customer satisfaction as
experienced by large corporates, the big improvers over the past six months are
Bank of America, followed by DBS, Standard Chartered and JPMorgan.

UOB is the only bank whose overall customer satisfaction rating has
deteriorated, while Citigroup, Bank of China and Hang Seng registered only
minimal improvement.

“Deteriorating customer satisfaction inevitably results in losing customers,
particularly large sophisticated ones with high expectations of their service
providers, therefore UOB and OCBC really need to lift their game from a customer
service perspective if they want to successfully compete in this market,” East &
Partners principal analyst Paul Dowling said.

“Which bank a company borrows from no longer determines who it views as its
primary banker, these days the key banking relationship is centred upon
transaction banking,” he said.

“As a result of the emphasis on transaction banking that has occurred over the
past 18 months in these Asian markets, it’s vital that service providers get the
basics right; transaction processing and account settlement performance need to
be quick, accurate and reliable but it’s these areas where UOB and OCBC appear
to be slipping up,” Mr Dowling said.

“By contrast, DBS seems to be getting its service delivery right with across the
board improvements in customer satisfaction, in some cases outperforming several
of the foreign banks,” he said.

“Another key finding from the report is that customers in the region are
increasingly looking for better understanding of both their business and the
industry they operate in. Banks have to demonstrate a greater advisory and
partnership capacity than ever before,” he said.

“Coming to a corporate CFO’s table with product offering is no longer good
enough because product has become increasingly commoditised. What gets banks
over the line these days are top quality service and relationship propositions,”
Mr Dowling said.

Current
Ranking
Improvement
in Overall
Service Satisfaction Performance
(%)
1 Standard Chartered 3.1
2 JPMorgan 3.1
3 Deutsche 2.2
4 Citigroup 0.6
5 Bank of America 4.3
6 HSBC 2.5
7 DBS 3.9
8 OCBC 1.8
9 UOB (0.9)
10 Hang Seng 0.8
11 Bank of China 0.0
Source: East & Partners Asian Transaction Banking Program – May 2005

* Large corporates are defined in this continuous six monthly market study as
the top 100 enterprises based on annual revenues in each of eleven countries in
Asia.

For more information please contact:

Paul Bartholomew
Senior Consultant
East & Partners
Tel: +61-2-9004 7848
Mob: +61-410 400 156
paul.b@eastandpartners.com

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